It was back to more familiar territory for the second game in the mini-tour at Stenhousemuir played Forfar Athletic who were the last opposition that the Warriors met in the regular league season. After the rigours of the Cove game and training session in the morning there were a few heavy looking legs for this encounter. Jordan Smith who had been unable to play on the Friday night due to other commitments started this game as the team reverted to a back three from a back four the previous night.

The Warriors started brightly and Craig O’Reilly had a chance to put them ahead after only 5 minutes but failed to get any strength in his effort and it was comfortably saved by ex-Warrior Ally Brown. Scott Bennett was called into action a minute later to thwart Nicky Smith after the Forfar player got behind the defence but the keeper stood up well to block the shot. Iain Diack looked keen for a taste of the action and he had a curling shot deflected just wide and this was followed shortly afterwards by a strong run down the right flank before crossing to Pat Scullion whose volley was saved.

Bennett was to deny Smith and Chris Templeman with a great double save a minute later the Loons took the lead. A long diagonal ball from the left was met by David Mowatt who struck the ball home. After this Forfar grew in confidence and it took a superb interception by Willie Lyle to nip the ball away from Iain Campbell to prevent another goal. His brother Ross did score for Forfar in 34 minutes when he took advantage of lax marking to head home a Darren Brady cross unchallenged. In 34 minutes the Warriors pulled a goal back when a dink ball by Scullion was met by Diack who finished with aplomb.

The second half was mainly played in the Stenhousemuir half of the field and Forfar should have extended their lead in the 49th minute when Ross Campbell missed with another free header as the lessons of the first half failed to be heeded. Forfar continued to have the bulk of the play but there was a glimmer of hope for Stenhousemuir when Scott Dalziel charged down an Ally Brown clearance but it went out of the park for goalkick. Dalziel was having some joy down the left though and he struck a powerful shot just over the bar in the 72nd minute. As the game progressed tempers became flared after a late tackle by Iain Thomson who probably just misjudged it as he lacks games. The referee took no action though and a minute later Thomson was on the receiving end of retribution from Iain Campbell. Thankfully the game did not escalate into a battle after this and although Kevin Gordon struck the crossbar from distance with Bennett beaten the score stayed at 2-1 for the Loons when the referee blew the final whistle.

Despite the final result the exercise as a whole was more important than the score line and will have been good preparation for the forthcoming season and after all that’s what it is all about.